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Week5

Assignment #5.1: P: CONCEPT TESTING - 1 CONCEPT

Posted on Sun Jun 2 11:36 AM

My gap (one sentence problem statement)

In what way may I create an artifact that allows me to take better and more immersive video with regular digital cameras while doing action sports (ie. cycling).

List of Main Primary User Needs

Camera mount is tough (good quality).

Camera mount is adaptable.

Camera mount prevents vibration

Camera mount is inexpensive

Camera mount looks cool (elegance and beauty).

Visual Description of the 1 selected Concept

Last week I had pre-selected 3 concepts:

The Chest Harness

The Helmet Mount

The Tripod Helmet

The Tripod Helmet (third option above) was definitively ruled out since it was not very usable under real life circumstances. So, I preselected only two of the concepts to evaluate and using a survey that was completed by 13 potential buyers. The user selection process will be described further down in the post.

At the conclusion of the user selection process, most users chose option A. CHEST HARNESS as the most viable product (please see next rubric below).

Here is the improved sketch on the CHEST HARNESS concept, that include the new ideas.

Concept Testing Process

I decided to create an online survey in order to understand what users really thought about the prototypes and if the potential buyers would actually buy the product. The online survey was thought as the optimal method to quickly invite and get information from potential users and buyers. I contacted several friends that like to do action sports (mostly cycling) and also a local club, and asked them if they could help out filling the form.

Below you will find several screenshots of the survey form and also from the results.

From around 25 persons that were contacted, 13 filled the form during the week. Below you will see graphs that simplify the results.

As you can see from the graphs of the results, the preferred concept was the CHEST HARNESS camera mount, a.k.a. option A.

Average score for CHEST HARNESS was 3,8 (strong tendency to buy the product)

Average score for HELMET MOUNT was 2,7 (neutral towards buying the product)

I contacted directly the users that had some intent (either mild or strong) on buying the winning concept (CHEST HARNESS) in order to ask them for more feedback and their thoughts. Most users agreed that what they really liked was the simplicity of the harness, not having to buy a helmet, and that it could be cheap. Some concerns that would have to be addressed in further iterations of the prototype, are:

When biking, the mount should have some kind of way to position the camera angle or tilt position (ie. different bike geometries... aggressive riders ride almost paralel to the road and leisurely riders have an almost vertical riding position).

It should be ultra safe for the cameras that are attached, meaning that they should not fall easily.

Some are worried on the vibration, but after trying the mounts out, the chest harness is the way video get least vibration (compared to the helmet mount, for example).